Institutional investors are increasingly looking for direct deal opportunities. For private equity firms, what does it mean when your investor client becomes your competitor? According to Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt Partners Mary Abbott and John Groenewegen, it means allowing co-investment rights (and accompanying lower fees) in the hope that large limited partners will decide not to invest directly but rather be alongside the fund as a co-investor.
Ontario's municipal workers' pension fund has sold a majority stake in global marine services company V.Group to buyout firm Advent International in the first sale by the Canadian fund's private equity arm in Europe, Reuters reported. As part of the shift to more direct investment, the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) set up a private equity team and now has about $10 billion invested. It started a London operation in 2009 and two years later it bought V.Group, which manages more than 1,000 vessels and employs more than 3,000 people, from Exponent Private Equity for an enterprise value of US$520 million.
Dublin-based AWAS has been put up for sale by its private equity owners in an auction that could value the aircraft lessor at US$7 billion, including debt, and draw bids from Chinese lessors and other Asian investors, sources told Reuters. Terra Firma and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board acquired AWAS in 2006 for about US$2.5 billion. Potential buyers include the aviation leasing company backed by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, the aircraft leasing arm of China's Ping An Insurance Group, and other Asian lessors. Pension funds may also show interest.
U.S. hedge fund Coliseum Capital Management LLC, the third-largest shareholder of Performance Sports Group Ltd, said it was in talks with a third party related to a potential deal involving the maker of Bauer ice hockey gear, Reuters reported. Performance Sports, which filed for bankruptcy protection in October, has received a "stalking horse" bid from its largest shareholder Sagard Capital Partners LP, an affiliate of Canada’s Power Corp, and Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. Coliseum Capital said it had received consent from Performance Sports' financial adviser to begin discussions with an affiliate of one of the buyers of the sports gear maker, according to a regulatory filing on Tuesday.
Time Inc, the publisher of Time, People and Fortune magazines, has rejected a takeover bid from Canadian billionaire investor Edgar Bronfman Jr, Reuters
reported, citing a report from the New York Post . Bronfman offered US$18 per share, valuing the publisher at US$1.78 billion. Bronfman, who is a managing partner of New York private equity firm Accretive LLC, made the bid along with Russian-born billionaire Leonard Blavatnik, the founder of holding company Access Industries, and Israeli businessman Ynon Kreiz.
Amaya Inc's former chief executive David Baazov said he still plans to buy the online gambling company despite one of his apparent backers saying it had no involvement in the $3.65 billion bid, Reuters reported. The status of Baazov's offer had been in doubt after the Globe and Mail newspaper published an interview with Kalini Lal, the head of Dubai-based investment firm KBC Aldini Capital, one of four international investors named by Baazov as his backers, in which Lal said his firm had not agreed to provide funds.
U.S. packaging group Westrock has put a unit making soap dispensers and perfume sprayers up for sale in a potential US$1 billion deal, as it seeks to streamline its portfolio after a recent merger, sources told Reuters. Westrock is working with Lazard on the sale process, which has already advanced to the second round, the sources said, adding final bids from buyout groups including Onex Corp, Advent, Bain, CD&R, as well as British packaging group RPC, were expected by a mid-December deadline. The Westrock unit, dubbed a home, health and beauty business, posted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of about US$110 million in its last fiscal year on sales of US$567 million.
Brookfield Asset Management has proposed to take a 50-60 percent stake in bankrupt solar company SunEdison Inc unit TerraForm Power Inc, a week after it expressed interest in buying the yieldco, Reuters reported. The cash offer of US$13 for class A and class B shares of TerraForm Power is nearly in line with the class A stock's Thursday close of US$13.01. The Canadian alternative-asset manager also said it was prepared to make an offer for SunEdison's other unit TerraForm Global Inc.
Novacap has added to its bench strength with a crop of fresh hires, including a successful tech entrepreneur and a former Stronach Group executive. The Montréal private equity firm announced the addition of five new professionals. They include Étienne Veilleux, founder of energy management solutions provider Distech Controls, who joined Novacap’s TMT group as a senior partner in September.
Citigroup Inc agreed to sell its Canadian subprime lending unit to an investor group led by U.S. private equity firms J.C. Flowers and Värde Partners for an undisclosed amount, as the bank scales back its international consumer banking presence, Reuters reported. CitiFinancial Canada, which charges a higher interest rate than most mainstream lenders in Canada, has drawn criticism from some consumer advocates over its interest rates and fees. The company offers personal loans that start at 27.99 percent and mortgage refinancing that starts at 10.35 percent.